News Release

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Gang Reduction Statistics News Conference

Tuesday January 10, 2012- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief Charlie Beck announced the 2011 results of the City’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) program.

Since its initiation GRYD had played a pivotal role in the dramatic drop in gang homicides, Chief Beck commented he has seen gang violence from its inception to its peak in the 1990’s. Homicides have decreased from 700 homicides per year in the 90’s to less than 160 in 2011.

The GRYD program is designed to prevent and reduce gang violence using research driven tools, law enforcement, and family-focused psychological theories. As a component of GRYD, Saturday NightsLights (SNL) allow City parks to stay open until midnight from Fourth of July weekend through Labor Day weekend.

The (SNL) program in 2011 was successful resulting in a 35% reduction in gang related Part I crimes. All the communities around SNL parks have experienced a 43% reduction in aggravated assaults and 55% reduction in shots fired. There were approximately 774,800 visits from community citizens made to the 32 SNL sites in the summer of 2011.